FDA Finds Dirty Equipment, Lack of Safeguards at Eye Drops Factory Amid Deadly Outbreak

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in White Oak, Md., on July 20, 2020. Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images

U.S. inspectors found dirty equipment and other issues at an eye drops factory as officials investigate a serious outbreak of bacterial infections, some of which have led to deaths.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspectors saw a “black, brown colored greasy deposit” on one machine and found that the machine hadn’t been cleaned for weeks, according to documents made public by the agency about five weeks after a Feb. 21 inspection of the factory (pdf).